Ajax4jsf Component Factory

In 2005 and 2006, all of my clients where trying to decide what technology stack to chose for the “next gen” product. Sound familiar?

By now, most seem to have at least chosen to forge ahead with stacks based on .NET or Java. In my most recent engagement, the tech stack of choice was JSE5, JEE4, Hibernate, Spring, JSF, Seam, Ajax4jsf, Facelets - with an Oracle 10g backend.

Most recently, I’ve been focused on helping the client decide upon how to build their custom JSF components. The requirements for these components are as complex as they come - highly ajaxified, data-intensive, and MUST play well within the overall tech stack.

As we’ve come to learn, building enterprise-level compents to this complexity is not simple. More over, the landscape for JSF component development is in a state of radical evolution right now. Any company playing in this space is releasing versions of their products - or even new products - weekly.

Exadel has just announced the Ajax4jsf Component Factory. I was fortunate to get an early look (and help from the Exadel team). My initial impression is that it brings to custom JSF component development the simplicity found in Facelet Tag Files - yet - allowing the full robustness of standard JSF component development.

I should be working on components through the component factory for the next month or so. More to come on this subject!